Dissociating the neural correlates of tactile temporal order and simultaneity judgements

Perceiving temporal relationships between sensory events is a key process for recognising dynamic environments. Temporal order judgement (TOJ) and simultaneity judgement (SJ) are used for probing this perceptual process. TOJ and SJ exhibit identical psychometric parameters. However, there is accumulating psychophysical evidence that distinguishes TOJ from SJ. Some studies have proposed that the perceptual processes for SJ (e.g., detecting successive/simultaneity) are also included in TOJ, whereas TOJ requires more processes (e.g., determination of the temporal order). Other studies have proposed two independent processes for TOJ and SJ. To identify differences in the neural activity associated with TOJ versus SJ, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging of participants during TOJ and SJ with identical tactile stimuli. TOJ-specific activity was observed in multiple regions (e.g., left ventral and bilateral dorsal premotor cortices and left posterior parietal cortex) that overlap the general temporal prediction network for perception and motor systems. SJ-specific activation was observed only in the posterior insular cortex. Our results suggest that TOJ requires more processes than SJ and that both TOJ and SJ implement specific process components. The neural differences between TOJ and SJ thus combine features described in previous psychophysical hypotheses that proposed different mechanisms.